23 yrs ago


my mother was young
until she got old when
she was 42 after she
had that brain surgery

I fed her something
with a spoon right
after leaving the
emergency room
several floors below

their sperm still 
sticky on my thighs
the face of that cop
in the car beside us
staring straight ahead
and I wonder now
if they really had a 
gun if they would've
shot me had I jumped
out at that traffic light
as they threatened to

I doubt it
but safety was so close
I doubted that too
and waited too long

like mom did
for me that day
to feed her supper
as if nothing unusual
had recently 
happened



Function


rain has its own reasons
at 12:57 a.m., one last

cigarette, I'll probably quit
tomorrow, or the next

day, anyway.
wednesday it will be autumn

again, seems that comes around
every year or so, seems

like all the seasons are cold here.
when I lived in phoenix all the

seasons were hot.  the women
all wore fur coats when the

temperature dropped to 60.  here
people don't wear coats.  they

wear attitudes instead, like,
"I'm too cool to wear a coat."

then they rub their hands together.
blowing on them, saying,

"boy, it's a cold one."  no shit.
people here are crazy, but

rain's good to sleep by
anywhere



where is it we drown?


offshore
where your tongue
meets my thigh
the water's 
deep.

you let down
the ladder of your
hair:  I climb upward
into the depths
of you